Review Summary: Edgykill, Grooverkill, Overnu, Oversellout, The Great Southern Overkill, take your pick.
Many like to say that Overkill was one of the few bands that stayed true to their thrash roots while the rest of the thrash scene succumbed to a plague of mainstream radio nu-rock riffs. Anyone who’s heard this album can tell you immediately that this is false. That is, unless, you think Limp Bizkit is thrash, then you’d be right. Back in the day, Overkill didn’t have to flaunt how badass they were; they just played heavy as balls riffs and kicked everyone’s asses naturally just by being themselves. They didn’t have to don backwards baseball caps and threaten to fight you in order to look intimidating, and that’s what this album forgets. This was an era where every mid-age thrash band thought the only way to survive was by either going wigger or whimper, and Overkill sadly chose the former.
It’s a common rule that real tough guys don’t have to tell people they’re tough guys, they’ll just do their thing and people will know. As part of this rule, wannabe tough guys will go around bragging about their toughness in a vapid attempt to prove a point. This album does exactly that, spewing puffed up-chest threats in every song, because that was popular at the time. To me, these sort of macheesy machismo pseudo-masculine lyrical thematics have always been way worse than a metal band going hard rock. I’ll take Load/Reload anyday over Diabolus In Musica or Stomp 442. Give me country Metallica anyday over nu-Slayer or groove Anthrax...and this album, too. For all you need to know about the generic lyricism can be heard in “Long Time Dyin”, with lines like ‘Then I looked him straight in the eye And I said hey man, Are you gonna be a long time dyin?’ And ‘you’ll remember this ass whooping’ and my favorite cringeworthy line: ‘looks like your ***ed, *** out of luck’. Who wrote this, Fred Durst? Did the guys from Staind give them pointers? The entire album is littered with cringey 8th grader recess badass lyrics straight out of a future school shooter weeaboo’s Tumblr blog. I would know, I was one.
Instead of actually staying true to thrash like many claim, Overkill instead followed Pantera and whatever nu-metal bands were popular at the time. Riffs sound closer to Korn or Slipknot than they do Exodus or Megadeth. Ignoring every other song you’ve ever heard and listening to single riffs out of context, I suppose some of them do sound pretty heavy. However, not a single riff sticks in the head and even less riffs are actually original. The few, and I do mean few, thrashy riffs scattered across this album sound directly lifted from The Great Southern Trendkill, which would be okay if it were on The Great Southern Trendkill.
Placing aside the stupid middle school levels of queermo dominance this album tries to assert, the big issue I have hear is that it’s just boring. Every song is the exact same and nothing is memorable here. From the banal opener “It Lives”, which sounds like a stolen track from Destruction’s The Least Successful Human Cannonball, to the unintentionally hilarious “F.U.C.T.” (seriously, that’s what it’s called) there really isn’t much remarkable about the album. “I’m Alright” has a decent main riff I suppose, as does “Little Bit O’ Murder” (seriously, that’s the name of the song), but I can’t really recommend much more.
Credit where it’s due, this album does have great production that still holds up well today. The guitars are very crunchy and the drums are perfect for this sound. You wish it could’ve gone to a better album. It does place some of the riffs above the comparable muddy production of WFO, but it doesn’t save many of the riffs. Blitz’s vocals still are and always will be awesome for the genre, and it’s incredible how well they still hold up despite the wear and tear. Regardless, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the crap this album spews. Still, I can’t say this is the worst of its kind, a distinction that is better named for Anthrax’s Stomp 442 or Demolition Hammer’s Time Bomb, nor is it Overkill’s worst album. But it is a very good summary of what not to do to be cool: don’t wear a backwards hat, don’t get in people’s faces, and ditch the Pantera worship. It’s a solid 2.5/5: not anything worth listening to, but definitely not the worst either.
